Month: September 2015

Home Movie Day
Saturday, October 17th
1-4pm
West Asheville Public Library
942 Haywood Road, Asheville, NC 28806
Free and Open to the Public!

“There’s no such thing as a bad home movie. These mini-underground opuses are revealing, scary, joyous, always flawed, filled with accidental art and shout outs from attics and closets all over the world to be seen again.”  – John Waters

Dust off your old home movies and bring them to the West Asheville Public Library for HOME MOVIE DAY!

“Home movies provide invaluable records of our families and our communities: they document vanished storefronts, questionable fashions, adorable pets, long-departed loved ones, and neighborhoods in transition. Many people still possess these old reels or tapes, passed down from generation to generation, but lack the projection equipment to view them properly and safely,” stated Skip Elsheimer, president of the Center for Home Movies.  “That’s where Home Movie Day comes in: the public brings the films, and volunteers inspect them, project them, and offer tips on storage, preservation, and video transfer—and free of charge, in most cities. And best of all, you get to watch them with an enthusiastic audience, equally hungry for local history.”

Home Movie Day is a celebration of amateur films and filmmaking held annually at dozens of local venues worldwide, providing the opportunity for individuals and families to discover how best to care for their films and get a rare chance to view examples of home movies. Traditionally held on the third Saturday in October (October 17th in 2015), dates for individual events will take place in October and November. Home Movie Day has grown each year from its initial slate of two dozen locations across the U.S., Mexico, Canada, and Japan in 2003.

HOME MOVIE DAY FAQ

What film formats can I bring to Home Movie Day?

Volunteers will inspect and project 16mm, 8mm, and Super 8 film. We will also project DVDs, VHS, & VHS-C. If you have any other oddball formats (28mm, 9.5mm, etc.), HMD representatives can help you find a safe, cost-effective way to view these prints.

Do I need to bring a home movie?

Nope. You’re welcome to stop by and just watch other people’s home movies. This isn’t a film screening where you need to stay silent. The more the audience contributes, the more fun it is. Your commentary will be much appreciated!

I have a whole box of ’em! Can we watch ’em all?

Nobody likes a home movie hog. Bring as many films as you’d like, but we’ll be screening one reel (3-5mins) from each participant until everyone has had a chance to see their home movies. After that, second helpings are totally fine–especially in Kodachrome.

My home movies are very personal. Why would I want to watch them with a bunch of voyeurs?

Home movies often commemorate scenes of enormous personal importance: weddings, graduations, birthdays, family reunions. Though home movies often begin as family records with deeply private meaning, the passage of years makes them compelling to people far beyond your immediate family. They serve as authentic records of our neighborhoods, traditions, and communities. You’ll enjoy sharing them–really.

Will you take my home movies and never give them back? They’re incredibly precious to me!

Nope. We’ll just inspect and project your home movies and return them to you in comparable condition. If there are broken perforations or cracked frames, we’ll fix those and return the films in better condition! Keep in mind that decades-old films are fragile and there’s an inherent (though slight) risk of damage during any projection. If we do not feel that the film can be safely projected, we will not screen it.

This sounds amazing! How much will this expert consultation set me back?

Home Movie Day is free, but donations are always welcome to defray costs.

For more information about Home Movie Days around the world: [http://www.centerforhomemovies.org/hmd/]

Three short films about place
with filmmaker Paul Hinson IN PERSON
Monday, September 21st
8pm
Firestorm Cafe, 610 Haywood Road, Asheville
FREE!

Currently based in Philadelphia, Paul left his rural hometown in the Blue Ridge Mountains of southwest Virginia to look for work in the city. These films are about coming into the city and back out of it. They are quiet and fleeting, tuned into the moment of sensation as inner life reaches out to the landscapes around us, both familiar and alien.

“Places, we realize, are as much as part of us as we are part of them, and senses of place — yours, mine, and everyone else’s — partake complexly of both.”
— Keith H. Basso, Wisdom Sits in Places

LAUREL RUN ROAD (2015)
33 min // digital video // digital sound
Fall gives way to winter as Sean and his daughter Caitlin stop off in a rural college town on their way back from an off-season beach vacation.
From a football game at one of the loudest stadiums in the country, to a lonely cabin in the mountains, and along the meandering forest roads, they finally lose their way while looking for a church down by the river.
Entirely improvised in the Blue Ridge Mountains of southwest Virginia, LAUREL RUN ROAD is part fiction, part gentle observation of place.

IF THESE WERE SILENT (2013)
9 min 17 sec // digital video // digital sound
An optically printed landscape of a mountain in northeast Pennsylvania. Shifting horizons, kaleidoscopic trees, and passing hikers meet shifting frame lines, changing frame rates, and optical effects in a phenomenological exploration of the interanimation of thought and landscape.

YELLOWBLUE (2012)
4 min 35 sec // 16mm // optical sound
Optically-printed on 16mm, YELLOWBLUE layers textures of etched and bleached found-footage as well as slides to create rhythms of abstraction and representation that invoke simultaneous sensations of warmth and coldness, nearness and distance, intimacy and alienation.

Check out the trailer here: [https://vimeo.com/115024409]
Check out the Paul’s website here: [http://www.phinson.com/current-work/]

(Images from Laurel Run Road)